Rodin’s California Dream
- Kaleb Houle-Lawrence
- Nov 2
- 4 min read
When you think of Auguste Rodin, where does your mind go? Probably to Paris. Rodin is indeed one of the most well-known French sculptors in history. There is an entire Museum in Paris (Le Musée Rodin) dedicated to his life’s works and his personal history.
But there’s a second major collection of Rodin’s works… In California? Indeed, the largest collection of Rodin sculptures outside of Paris is housed in the Cantor Arts Center on the campus of Stanford University. I took a trip to the Arts Center to learn more about the magnificent sculptor and why his art is so integral to Stanford’s campus.
During his early childhood, Rodin studied painting and drawing at the Petite École. Although he impressed his professors there, he failed to gain entry to the École des Beaux-Arts, the most prestigious art school in France. This rejection deeply affected him and delayed the start of his professional artistic career.
Following a brief hiatus during which his sister tragically passed away, Rodin returns to sculpting in the studio of Albert-Ernest Carrer-Belluse. He also met his wife during that time, who would become a central subject in the artist’s work. Her presence in his sculptures marked a shift toward more emotionally charged and personal representations.
Rodin’s Early Work
By the 1870s, Rodin had begun his career and started touring pieces around Europe. His work was gradually gaining attention, and he was beginning to distance himself from conventional academic expectations.
In 1880, Rodin’s sculpture “The Age of Bronze” won a bronze medal (ironically) at the Paris Salon. The French state purchases the piece. At the time, the sculpture stirred controversy because of its lifelike detail. Critics accused Rodin of casting it from a live model rather than sculpting it by hand, which he denied.
Following this victory, Rodin was commissioned to make his grand-œuvre (“great work”) – The Gates of Hell. This project consumed much of his time and energy for the next several decades. It included many of his most famous individual sculptures, such as The Thinker, The Three Shades, and The Kiss, all of which originated as components of the larger portal design.
In 1887, Rodin was awarded the Cross of the Chevalier of the Legion of Honor by the French government. In 1916, shortly before he died in 1917, Rodin donated all of his life’s works to the French government, to be placed in his eponymous museum (Musée Rodin). This act ensured that his work would be preserved for future generations and made publicly accessible in a single dedicated space.
Rodin’s Uniqueness
Rodin’s rise to fame is largely due to his unique artistic approach. He strongly rejected the academic conventions he had learned throughout his schooling. At the time, sculptors aimed to replicate the ancient Greek and Roman traditions in depicting perfect human bodies. Rodin, instead, chose his own proportions, purposefully emphasizing certain parts to express a theme or emotion. He prioritized conveying human feeling over anatomical precision. This approach set him apart from his contemporaries and challenged traditional ideas about beauty and realism in sculpture.
To some, Rodin’s sculptures seem rough and almost unfinished. They are far from the polished perfection that many may expect from such a widely-regarded sculptor. But that is what made Rodin a revolutionary force in the art scene. He believed that imperfection could better represent the complexity of the human experience, and his textured, expressive surfaces were part of that philosophy.
Rodin was also commissioned by various organizations to make busts of honored French citizens. Among those who had the honor to be cast in a bust by Rodin were famous literary icons Honoré de Balzac and Victor Hugo. These portraits were not simple likenesses. Rodin used exaggerated features, dramatic lighting effects, and emotional expressions to capture not just the appearance, but the inner life of his subjects. His bust of Balzac, for example, was initially criticized for its abstraction but is now considered one of his most important psychological studies.
Since Rodin’s works were mostly casts of original molds, once the arts were donated to the French state, replication ran rampant. By some estimates, more than 50 recreations of Rodin’s “The Thinker” were made after his death. These reproductions were not unauthorized copies but legitimate posthumous casts made using the artist’s original molds, many of which were supervised or approved by Rodin himself during his lifetime. This allowed two American art lovers, Gerald and Iris Cantor, to amass a large collection of these replications.
The Cantors collected over 750 sculptures. 89 of those pieces were donated to the Stanford collection, most of which were placed in the Cantor Art Museum. The Cantors were not only collectors but also philanthropists who believed in making art accessible to the public and students. Some were scattered amongst the Main Quad, as well as in a sculpture garden. These outdoor installations create a unique dialogue between Rodin’s art and the daily rhythm of university life, offering a rare opportunity to see world-class sculpture in an informal, open-air setting.
If you want to see all of my pictures from the museum, here is a Google Drive folder with everything uploaded! Enjoy the views, and for you art aficionados, take note of the unique styles!
Written by Kaleb Houle-Lawrence
University Intern
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